Pragmatic Inquiry is a deep discipline, and as with all disciplines, it takes time to engage in the practice for your own problem-solving. The Lab Journal is your guide and reference to the key points of Pragmatic Inquiry and will help to guide you through and record your discovery of developing truths.
We publish the practice of the ‘Arc of Pragmatic Inquiry’ as the PathFinder Lab Journal and as the PathFinder Field Notebook. Both are copyright under the Creative Commons permission to encourage others to experiment with the line of questioning, and share their experiences with our Pragmatic Inquiry Community. That is how the seemingly simple – but philosophically rigorous – wording and order of these questions and exercises have evolved. So, if you use them, please let us know how they are working, and in what context. See Corporate and Academic case histories:
PathFinder Lab Journal
A comprehensive 220 page notebook – 2/3 pages are blank for journaling and sketching – outlines the disciplined process of Pragmatic Inquiry. We call it a “Lab Journal” to reflect the practice of testing hypotheses, a key insight of pragmatism. It’s used as a discussion guide to help walk you through and record your discovery of solid truths and answers.
PathFinder Lab Journal – Introduction: Why, What, How.
Through our own 30 year ‘Arc of Pragmatic Inquiry’ development – engaging thousands of executives and students in businesses, universities, and civic institutions – we are always in the process of refining and improving the exercises and the language. But always keeping the basic insights and frame of the American Pragmatism methodology in tact.
Most recently, with the help of Presidio Graduate School faculty, students, and administration – supported by a 3 year “Revitalizing Presidio’s Graduate School Founding Educational Philosophy” grant – we tested and completely updated the Lab Journal for the Version 3.0, including specific Presidio branding and introduction.
Interested in the 220 page PDF of the PathFinder Lab Journal 3.0?
Download Digital EditionAlso available as a coil-bound hardcover version of PathFinder Lab Journal 3.0 – pictured above.
Purchase Hardcover EditionPathFinder Field Notebook
This notebook is a condensed version of the Lab Journal. It’s ideal for classroom settings and discussion group brainstorming sessions. Here is the version published in Learning to Read the Signs – 2nd edition.
PathFinder Field Notebook in Learning to Read the Signs 2nd edition – Appendix III.
PathFinder Field Notebook Update
Here is how it was used for an Arc of Pragmatic Inquiry at Presidio Graduate School for students from UEAN, Bogota, Colombia.
UEAN Presidio Silicon Valley Seminar PathFinder Field Notebook: “What’s your big idea?”
Let us know what your questions, challenges, problems, issues are that you think Pragmatic Inquiry might help you address.